This invention relates to a safety belt for the passengers of vehicles, especially motor vehicles, and more particularly to a three-point safety belt system comprising a safety belt means for coiling or rolling up the safety belt, an eye-like passage ring through which the safety belt passes and a clasp or buckle serving for fastening the safety belt.
Prior art safety belts of this kind comprising a diagonal shoulder-belt and a horizontal pelvis-belt exhibit serious disadvantages insofar as after the safety belt has been put on, the two belt sections tend to alter their mutually proportional lengths. As a result, during use of the vehicle for a ride the safety belt will be moved back and forth within the passage ring whenever the passengers move or when the ride is unsmooth because e.g. of bumpy roads. Hence the safety belt is not only subjected to permanent wear but also moves from the initially preset favorable position at the pelvis, upwards into the region of the stomach whereupon in a crash the safety belt can cause serious internal injuries. Moreover, in the prior art systems the breast-belt can increase too greatly in length so that in the event an an accident the upper part of the body will be thrown forwards and thus the head will be greatly endangered. Furthermore, a too slack pelvis-belt can result in submarining (dipping through of the pelvis portion) whereby the legs are endangered. Finally, the motoring safety altogether is substantially impaired in that under traffic and touring conditions the driver is compelled to repeatedly readjust the pelvis-belt to the correct length and position whereby his concentration is disturbed.
German Offenlegungsschrift DOS No. 2,143,856 discloses a three-point safety belt without automatic belt coiling-up means wherein the angular position of the breast-belt relative to the pelvis-belt had to be secured by a sleeve which consists of a preferably deformable material having a great elasticity and which simultaneously covers both belt members at least partially while one end thereof abuts a retaining clasp provided in said safety belt and the other end of said sleeve holds the zone of intersection of the two belt members in a preferred safety position. The problem underlying the present invention was neither set nor solved in said known three-point safety belt.